Women's Rights Violations Analysis

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Individuals throughout the United States are known for being treated equally; yet oftentimes we are presented with violations of one’s rights at the state and federal levels. Individuals at risk when laws are being violated me be targeted due to special characteristics, i.e., single, race, sex, medical or lifestyle. Some illegal. violations may be due to specific prejudice ideations imposed on others by a group or a single individual. The main point of this issue paper is summed in its title, California female inmates sterilized illegally (Johnson, 2014). The article addresses how two prison systems in California sterilized female inmate. Some sterilization occurred after the women had given birth. The reasoning behind the sterilization…show more content…
The exception to the law would be if the procedure is needed for life threatening or treatment for a serious medical condition. By performing the sterilization, the California prison system violated the right for the females to consent legally to having the procedure. Under the California Health and Safety code, Section 24172, individuals have the right to decide whether or not to participate in experimental medical procedures (Code 24172). As with research, individuals have the right to consent to medical procedures with undue coercion (2 CFR 482.13(b) (2)), the patient has the right to decide upon medical care. In the article Johnson (2014) , it did not address the women’s constitutional rights being violated. The right to vote may be loss when an individual is incarcerated, but they do not lose their medical rights (Plate,…show more content…
The targeted population was repeated offenders who had a permanent medical procedure taken against them to ensure that they did not procreate. Statistics reflect that the typical characteristics of a repeated offender are as follow: poor, undereducated, with a feeling of hopelessness, etc. Performing sterilization again the inmates violated California’s state law regarding an individual having the right to consent. Garcia (2013) review historical events where sterilizations were preformed illegally, i.e., force sterilization was acceptable in 1897-1909 for the mentally impaired; 1965, 30 percent of Puerto Rican women were sterilized due to overpopulation of Puerto Rican; and 3,406 Native American were sterilized without appropriate consent. (Garcia,

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